vrijdag 2 november 2012

Guided by Sandy (preface)

Coming to Manhattan is always a joy. I visited the city a dozen times and probably will do so a dozen more. On business or just for fun, New York has always been there.

So when I boarded from Amsterdam on October 27 for a week with about 20 scheduled meetings and a panel session at a conference on hyperlocal journalism, again I was full of expectations.

Sandy decided differently. The conference was canceled, all the meetings were postponed. Simply because I arrived a day early in New York and all of my interlocutors couldn't come anymore.
And I couldn't leave. Crossing the East River was impossible, let alone leaving on a plane.

So what to do? I was alone, no appointments left, a rare occasion to explore the city on my own. So after visiting some good friends for lunch on Sunday, I asked the great people from ACE Hotel (on 29th & Broadway) to lend me a bike, they did, and I peddled south on Broadway.

What followed were four days in a rare combination of excitement and horror. Guided by superstorm Sandy, carried by a handmade bike from Brooklyn and led by my curiosity, I discovered a city that was ignorant on day one, anxious on day two, helpless on day three, and fully rebuilding on day four.